Library Education Project Almost Complete

As the bar year wraps up, the YLD is proud to announce that its signature public service project has been an amazing success. The goal of the Tennessee Library Education Project was to train at least one librarian in every county on how to use existing resources to help members of the public in need of legal information and advice. Presentations have been delivered in all but eight of the state’s 95 counties, and plans are in place to cover the last few locations in the coming weeks.

The project, an initiative of YLD President David McDowell, had volunteers visit libraries across the state to educate librarians on free legal resources such as OnlineTNJustice, which allows qualified individuals to post a legal question to a private messaging system and receive an answer from a volunteer lawyer; LIFT, a website that provides general information about a number of different legal issues as well as links to other pro bono resources; and aLEGALz, a toll-free hotline that provides legal information and referrals to low-income Tennesseans.

In cooperation with the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS), the YLD created a power point presentation and a resource page so volunteer lawyers had the information they needed to make presentations about these services. The website also offered handouts and signs that could be downloaded and left with librarians for their use. For more information about the project contact McDowell at (423) 756-5171.